Functional Medicine Fundamentals

Though often overlooked or misunderstood, functional medicine is a unique, powerful approach to personal health.

Working to treat symptoms of your ailments can feel like a game of catch up, much like cleaning soiled tables in a busy restaurant. What if you could identify why you tend to feel ill or address chronic problems at their source? Prevent illness, and you can stop fighting to manage symptoms like pain or fatigue.

That's the aim of functional medicine, a growing segment of the health care industry. As the Cleveland Clinics Center for Functional Medicine explains, "The functional medicine model of care offers a patient-centered approach to chronic disease management...so you can receive personalized, effective care for your needs."

To those that feel that other medical practitioners don't listen to their unique needs or simply dismiss them and prescribe meds, functional medicine offers an alternative.

As nutritional therapy practitioner states, "Symptoms are the body's way of alerting us that something deeper is going on, that we are out of balance in some way. Functional medicine takes into consideration that each person is a bio-individual and what works for one person will not work for another due to their unique circumstances." By focusing on the bio-individual, functional medicine can help promote whole, lifelong health and wellness rather than mere symptom suppression.

And yet this field goes well beyond the individual. As the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) states, "Functional medicine plays a key role in the effort to address the modern epidemic of chronic disease.... (and) the recurring threat of pandemics. Using these concepts and tools, functional medicine practitioners contribute vital skills for addressing and reversing the global health issues of the twenty first century." For example, the IFM has developed exposure-prevention and immunity-boosting tips, which it pairs with CDC guidelines to help patients avoid some of today's most common diseases.

This is a partial article written by Andre Rios from the Start Healthy magazine that is a comprehensive guide to a healthier and happier life. This invaluable magazine is compliments of Elizabeth Emory who is the CEO/Owner of Transformational Holistic Health and Life Coaching, LLC. You can reach out to Liz via email at liz@Thehealthandlife.org